G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra – Loved It Or Hated It?

Ah ha!  I so didn’t choose this movie to watch.  Apparently, the ban is still on.  Because I chose that Thai film that nobody seems to enjoy watching.  OK, I shall leave the decision making process to the rest of the Movie Review Squad.  We all know that the critics have beaten this one bad.  But it’s a genre we love to watch.  We went into the theatre with open minds, with little expectation.

I can understand why some hated “G.I. Joe” the movie.  Most highlighted that the storyline is ‘stupid’, the script is weak, and the effect is too ‘over-the-top’.  Some even compare this to the Transformer franchise (which I am pretty sure it works for some).  To be fair, like our friend TK has pointed out to me, “G.I. Joe” started off as action figures sold by a toy company.  It evolves into comics and cartoons and surprise, surprise, video games in the late eighties, early nineties.  To me, the entire movie felt exactly like watching a video game on a very big screen.  Maybe that’s why “G.I. Joe” is breathtaking to me in its own way.  Yes, audio checked, video checked.  What I found lacking – strange to say and no fault of the filmmakers – is the kinetic interaction like what we gamers derived in computer gaming.  Throughout the show, I felt like grabbing my invisible mouse and keyboard and get involved in the storyline, the hack and slash, or the massive explosions.  What you see on the big screen is only half of what gamers are experiencing, minus the interaction bits.  Back to the movie, when I first saw the underwater fortress and the mad scientist, that is so BioShock.  The military suit?  Crysis has it with the “nano suit” doing quite similar things that the Joes are doing on screen.  And I had flashbacks on Mass Effect. It must be those military command ships and characters in costumes.

I have no idea why Cynthia and TK enjoy “G.I. Joe” (I reckon she likes the actor Channing Tatum).  For me, I couldn’t help but chuckle (in a good way) whenever something unbelievable happen.  It helps when I don’t question some of the logics (seasoned computer gamer I am, just enjoy the ride).  Some asked why do they need to ‘weaponize’ a weapon by charging the nano warhead at a particle accelerator only to be fired off by human hands?  Well, if the story says so, it is so.

I like the car racing scene in Paris.  I like the lady in black hair more then the red head.  Seeing the Korean actor Lee Byung-hun on big screen is cool.  Classic movie it is not.  But I may consider watching the sequels.